Enrollment growth strains Springfield public schools

Tax increase, bond issue would help schools keep up, officials say

Mar. 24, 2013

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The Springfield school district recently provided the News-Leader with a list of 92 FTEs, or full-time equivalents, cut since the 2008-09 year.
FTE is a unit that represents the workload for a typical employed individual. One FTE could represent a full-time employee or two part-time employees.

About this series

Inside: A closer look at reductions to spending and staffing in recent years. Page 5ALast Sunday: Plan to add classrooms, improve facilities behind request for $71.65 million bond issue

How it works

Springfield Public Schools’ current operating tax levy is $3.18. It generates about $100 million in annual revenue. The proposed 20-cent increase, phased in over two years, would raise the operating tax levy to $3.38 and generate an additional $6.4 million in annual operating revenue, which is used for day-to-day expenses. Personal, residential, commercial and agricultural property are all subject to property tax assessment. The tax burden of an individual taxpayer is determined by applying the levy rate against each $100 of assessed valuation, the budget book says. The “assessed valuation” — the dollar amount assigned to a property for the purpose of measuring taxes — on a $100,000 house is $19,000 so every 10 cents levied costs the homeowner $19. Currently, the district property tax on a $100,000 home is $702.98. That includes the $3.18 operating tax levy and the 51-cent debt service levy, which is used to pay off bond issues. If the 20-cent increase is approved, the property tax bill for the owner of a $100,000 would increase by $38.

Bond issue

The proposed $71.65 million bond issue calls for the following projects to be funded: • $19.25 million — Kickapoo High School. Renovate cafeteria, kitchen, auditorium and east entrance; enclose courtyard and complete upgrade to building mechanical system. • $17.8 million — Construct a new, 450-student elementary school in southwest Springfield. This would absorb the 250 students who currently attend Sherwood Elementary and alleviate crowding in that part of the district. • $16 million — Technology. Upgrade network bandwidth in all classrooms to accommodate expanded instructional use of Internet-connected devices in classrooms and replace computers that have been in use for six or more years. • $13.5 million — Fremont Elementary. Add 45,000 square feet of space, including about nine classrooms, and renovate some existing areas of the school to address growth in north Springfield. • $4 million — Glendale High School. Renovate cafeteria and enhance library. • $1.1 million — Hickory Hills Elementary and Middle School. To accommodate growth, add four elementary classrooms

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Springfield school officials say they need more funding for day-to-day expenses, especially the hiring of teachers to keep up with enrollment growth.

They placed a 20-cent property tax increase — as well as a $71.65 million bond issue — on the April 2 ballot.

If approved, the tax hike would be phased in over two years and increase the district’s operating levy of $3.18 per $100 of assessed valuation — which currently generates about $100 million a year — to $3.38.

That increase would bring in an additional $6.4 million annually.

“This community has always placed a very high value on education,” said board president Tom Prater of the Jan. 22 vote to place both funding proposals on the ballot. “Taxpayers look to us to educate them on our needs and the community’s needs, and we’ve done this to a great degree and now I think they expect solutions from us.”

The last operating tax levy increase was in 2004. That 20-cent increase was also phased in over two years.

Chief Financial Officer Steve Chodes said years of relatively flat state and federal revenue forced the district to curb its spending — which cut existing positions and reduced programs and services — to offset higher costs in other areas.

The district also trimmed the budget in key areas to hire classroom teachers to try and maintain class sizes. But, Chodes said more funding is now needed to keep up.

The board briefly considered requesting a tax hike of 25 cents or 30 cents before settling on 20 cents.

“We realize as much as anybody that the economy is not where it has been in the past,” Chodes said. “We’re understanding of that, so we’re asking the public for an amount that we feel that we absolutely have to have, essentially just to maintain our current services.”

Nearly half of the levy increase is tied to the proposed bond issue. If voters approve the latter, the district plans to add a 450-student elementary in the southwest part of the city, which would absorb students from Sherwood Elementary, and build additional classrooms at Hickory Hills and Fremont elementary schools.

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“It would be additional teachers as a result of the expanded number of classrooms resulting from the bond,” Chodes said. “It would include utilities, custodial and facility-related needs.”

Marc Maness, director of community relations and strategic planning, pointed to a recent survey of teachers. In it, they told the district that they need more community support.

“We have urgent needs in terms of the classroom support,” Maness said.

Hiring additional teachers is the priority, but he said the district must also take a look at adding staff that supports learning in the classroom.

“Every school may have a different need,” he said. “It may be a literacy coach at one. It may be a site-based clinician at another. It may be a counselor.”

Maness said crowded classrooms, particularly at the elementary level, have led to more disruptive behavior. The district uses different methods to manage that, ranging from redirecting a child in the classroom or removing them briefly to placing them in an alternative setting.

He said the additional teachers hired through the levy will help the district reduce class sizes or add an instructional aide in the schools where there is a lot of crowding.

“It’s one of the most critical issues, along with class size, that the district is going to have to grapple with and find new strategies to address,” he said. “And, without this levy, we’re back to minus square one.”

Kris Callen, vice president of the board, said the district has experienced growth in recent years. Enrollment stands at nearly 25,000 — the highest in a decade — and a recent demographic study predicts a minimum growth of 115 students a year for the next decade.

“The growth surprised us, in a good way,” she said.

Callen said the additional funding will allow the district to “be more strategic” about where to add teachers and configure classrooms to maintain a recommended teacher to student ratio, which varies based on the grade span.